Clips for 7-12-10

MEDIA CLIPS – July 24, 2017 Rockies erupt for 13 runs to overpower Bucs By Daniel Kramer and Max Gelman / MLB.com | July 23rd, 2017 DENVER -- Riding another strong performance from rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland, and supplemented with an offensive outburst, the Rockies powered to a 13-3 victory on Sunday at Coors Field to clinch their first home series win over the Pirates since July 2014. The Rockies batted through the order twice on Sunday, in the third and sixth innings, scattering homers from Charlie Blackmon, Trevor Story, pinch-hitting Pat Valaikaand two from Mark Reynolds, while Nolan Arenado had three RBIs to pad his MLB lead to 86. Pirates starter Ivan Nova was pegged for a season-high seven earned runs, five of which were the byproduct of pitches he left up in the zone. Not a trademark swing-and-miss pitcher -- he carried a 8.2 percent rate entering Sunday, sixth- lowest in MLB (min. 1,500 pitches thrown) -- Nova still managed five strikeouts to go with just one walk. But the nine hits he allowed over five-plus innings proved costly. "We knew that he was going to throw strikes," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "The first couple innings, both guys pitched well, held the other club down. But we stayed on it and then we broke through with a couple big swings obviously, but I liked our approach all day. I think we knew what we had going in from Nova. We had a nice plan, nice approach. We knew what he was going to throw." 1 Freeland turned in his seventh quality start at Coors Field in his ninth try, giving up just two earned runs in six innings with three strikeouts and two walks over a sizable 108 pitches to lower his home ERA to 3.21. Take away two poor starts in which he gave up a combined 11 earned runs, and the Denver native has a 1.91 home ERA. "He's just a guy that seemed like he stayed out of the middle of the plate," said David Freese, who hit a home run off Freeland in the sixth. "It's a park that brings necessity to that. His offspeed [stuff] was working, kept us off-balance." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Some bite, no fight: The Rockies and Pirates got into a kerfuffle in Saturday's game after Chad Kuhl buzzed Carlos Gonzalez in the sixth. On Sunday, Nova hit DJ LeMahieu in the arm, but LeMahieu went to first base without taking issue. That loaded the bases for Arenado, however, who promptly ripped a single to give the Rockies a 3-0 lead. Arenado has been white hot with runners in scoring position this season as he entered Sunday with a .415/.469/.851 slash line in such situations. Mercer rule: The Pirates' biggest rally came in the fourth inning when Freeland's sizzling command from his last two appearances seemed to wear off. Josh Harrison scored early in the inning after leading off with a double, and Mercer came to bat with the bases loaded following a Francisco Cervelli walk. But Mercer grounded out weakly to Story, ending the threat. Soon after, the Rockies turned the game into a rout, scoring seven runs in the sixth. QUOTABLE "People say it feels different but I don't feel that way. When you miss, you miss." -- Nova, on pitching at Coors Field SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS Of the 21 balls put in play against Freeland, in addition to fouls, he surrendered an average exit velocity of just 73.9 mph - - his lowest for a start this year -- continuing a promising trend for a pitcher who calls hitter-friendly Coors Field home. Freeland ranks among the MLB leaders in eliciting soft contact. With an average exit velocity against of 84.8 mph entering Sunday, the rookie left-hander ranks behind only Scott Feldman (83.8) and Clayton Kershaw (84.6) among those who have thrown at least 1,500 pitches. WHAT'S NEXT Pirates: Gerrit Cole makes his first start since striking out a season-high 10 batters as the Pirates open up a series in 2 San Francisco with the Giants. As the Bucs look to keep the pressure on the rest of the NL Central, this series begins a stretch of 19 straight games against teams currently under .500, including series with the Padres, Reds and Tigers. The Pirates will begin the stretch at 10:15 p.m. ET vs. Matt Cain. Rockies: The Rockies open a three-game series in St. Louis to wrap their regular season slate against the Cardinals. Rookie right-hander Antonio Senzatela will make his second start since rejoining the rotation after being out nearly four weeks to curb his innings. His lone start against St. Louis on May 26 at Coors Field was easily the best of his young career -- eight scoreless innings with just five hits and no walks on 98 pitches. 3 Freeland continues solid success at Coors Rookie left-hander threw quality start vs. Pirates, has thrown 7 QS in 9 tries at home By Daniel Kramer / MLB.com | July 23rd, 2017 DENVER -- As collective velocities and strikeouts rise across the baseball landscape, Kyle Freeland is OK with being grounded, in every sense of the word. With the Majors' third-highest ground-ball rate entering Sunday (57.8 percent), the rookie left-hander kept his infield busy with 12 ground ball outs in Sunday's 13-3 win over the Pirates, leading to his seventh quality start at Coors Field in his ninth try. It was a trademark performance for the left-hander, who lowered his home ERA to 3.21, or 1.91 if you remove two poor outings in which he gave up a combined 11 earned runs. "He creates top-hit action because his stuff is lively down in the zone," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "He has the ability to pitch up and in at times, and he's got to do that to keep them honest up, but his bread and butter is down, and we saw that today." To give Black's assertion statistical backing, Freeland is generating a "topped" rate -- a Statcast™ measurement of balls driven straight into the ground -- on 48.3 percent of all the batted balls he's surrendered on his two-seam fastball, a pitch with sink and the one he uses most frequently. Yet he's generating a collective swing-and-miss rate of 7.5 percent, lowest in MLB among current starting pitchers. The Denver native understands his backyard presents the game's most hitter-friendly conditions, but he tailored his approach to deal with that situation in the Minors. In college, Freeland sliced through lineups with a fastball-slider combination, but didn't possess elite, mid-to-high-90s velocity when he was drafted. That forced him to alter his approach when pitching in the Arizona Fall League in November 2015. And last year in Double-A and Triple-A, Freeland honed his command low in the zone so it didn't focus on generating swing-and-misses. "I knew if I was going to try and do that against top prospects and elite hitters, they're just going to foul things off, my pitch count would skyrocket immediately and I wouldn't make it deep in the game," Freeland said. "There was a learning curve 4 to it but still, it's good to preach 'pitch to contact' because if you can do that, you're allowing yourself to get deeper into games and you're allowing yourself to let your defense work and keep them awake." Coming two outs shy of a no-hitter on July 9 notwithstanding, Freeland has found himself in middle-inning jams that he's been forced to escape. Sunday's scenario came with the bases loaded in the fourth with a three-run lead, when he dropped in a two-seamer middle-away to Jordy Mercer who poked the pitch to Trevor Story to end the inning. "The big out, the ground ball to short with Mercer with the bases loaded with two outs in the fourth was, should be a typical Kyle Freeland out against a right-handed hitter -- ground ball, heavy action to the left side," said Black. "We saw that a lot today. Nolan [Arenado] had some action. Trevor had some action. That's a typical Kyle game." Another crisis averted for a rookie pitching with conviction. 5 Bettis feels strong, 'motivated' after rehab start Rockies righty continuing comeback from testicular cancer By Thomas Harding / MLB.com | @harding_at_mlb | 1:45 AM ET DENVER -- Rockies right-hander Chad Bettis' rehab start Sunday night for Triple-A Albuquerque at Salt Lake City wasn't the smoothest. But it provided information as he continues his comeback from testicular cancer, which has kept him out of the Majors this season. Bettis, who had pitched twice at Double-A Hartford, exhausted his 62 pitches in 2 2/3 innings, as he threw 38 strikes and gave up three runs on six hits, with four strikeouts and two walks. Bettis' start was part of a wild, 9-8 Albuquerque victory. "Physically, I felt good and strong. I felt like I could've thrown a lot more," Bettis told reporters. "But I worked on what I need to. I felt like I was able to execute some of the pitches that I really wanted to, but at the same time, it seemed like there's some stuff to work on." The pace of Bettis' outing was somewhat disjointed by the early production of the Albuquerque offense, which put up nine runs and 12 hits in its first two times at bat.

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